Welding News, Reviews and Culture by Jim Watson

Welding in the future: Star Trek!

This past weekend, I went to see, you guessed it, the new Star Trek movie. I honestly had never watched a single Star Trek show all the way through before this, but I loved the movie all the same.

And check out the trailers….

One in particular I think you’ll enjoy. It’s not about Star Trek, the movie, per se. It’s more about Star Trek, the concept, and it starts out with a close up of a guy welding. He then lifts up his visor and looks in amazement at what he’s helped to create: the new Starship Enterprise.

And the welder who you see lifting up his visor? That’s Anthony Vitale, a former welder turned actor, who was lucky enough to be the first face we saw in conjunction with the new Star Trek movie.

EXCLUSIVE: The teaser trailer for the new Star Trek starts off with the face of a rugged welder…and as it turns out he wasn’t just acting! TrekMovie.com spoke to the ‘welder’ actor and got the lowdown on what it was like to shoot the new Trek teaser.

Like almost every other actor in LA, last fall Anthony Vitale went in to Paramount to audition for the big sci-fi film “Corporate Headquarters.” Vitale had no idea that was a code name for JJ Abrams new Star Trek feature. After reading some lines Casting Director April Webster pulled him aside and asked him the fateful question “do you know how to weld?” Little did she know that Vitale had only started acting 3 years previously after being laid off as a marine carpenter and welder. Needless to say he was soon on Stage 25 at Paramount decked out in a full genuine welding outfit and ready to be the first man shot for Star Trek in years, something the actor is rather proud of.

The very first frame of film for principal photography on the teaser trailer was my close-up with the goggles on. When the cameras first turned on to start Star Trek XI, it was Anthony Vitale’s close-up.

Vitale sets the scene and it is clear he was the man for the job…

There was real steel there for the welding. I was using a genuine welding tool…specifically it was a mig welder — the technical term for that type of welding is gas metal arc welding. I was actually standing on concrete and there were some special effects going on behind me but the sparks that you guys see in front of my face, those are real… I was actually welding